I learned something today at the San Diego Comic-Con: The only fans here more supportive of a property than Twilight fans are Boondock Saints fans. I attended the panel, which was populated by some of the biggest Boondock Saints fans in the world, to see a world-premiere of the trailer and learn a little bit about the new film. I couldn’t hear a lot of the stuff going on in the trailer because of all the deafening and constant cheering, but hit the jump to hear my reactions to the trailer parts I WAS able to make out:Read More »

Sony Pictures has announced the details of The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day panel at 2009 San Diego Comic Con International. The trailer for the much anticipated sequel to the 1999 cult classic film The Boondock Saints will premiere during the panel on Saturday, July 25th at 3:30pm. Talent in attendance for the panel includes:

Boondock Saints director Troy Duffy held a live videocast answering fan and website questions yesterday about Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, which just wrapped production. We were asked to participate, but were too late to the game. Maybe we can get Troy on the /Filmcast Afterdark and get to the bottom of “Overnight”. Thanks to my friends at Geeks of Doom, I have the video embedded below.

Dexter star Julie Benz has officially joined the cast of Troy Duffy‘s Boondock Saints II: All Saint’s Day. Julie plays Unis Bloom, Paul Smecker’s (played by Willem Dafoe in the original film) protege, whom Duffy has described as a “Georgia peach”.

“She’s got that doc holiday accent, super super sexy. So she’s the one going after the saints and now working with these three officers. And she’s FBI.” … “She is that new story. She is one hell of a firecracker.”

Read more about the plot in our previous posting. Watch Julie answer some questions in the video blog after the jump, and check out the southern accent she will be using in the film. Thanks to /Film reader Christopher M for the tip.

The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day is actually happening after all. In the past we’ve told you Troy Duffy‘s plans for the sequel but despite the fact that the filmmaker assured everyone that the film was actually happening, we were all a bit skeptical (as we should be, this thing has been in the works for a long time now). Production officially began last week in Toronto. Sean Patrick Flanery (www.seanflanery.com) and Norman Reedus (www.normanreedusonline.com) have returned as the McManus brothers. Some original characters (Billy Connolly, David Della Rocco, Brian Mahoney) are returning and some new characters (Clifton Collins Jr., JoJo Rhama, and more) will be introduced into the story. Duffy has been posting video blogs on his YouTube page. It’s a lot of Troy talking to a camera, with an occasional video posting where Troy or some of the actors answer questions.

It’s been four months since Troy Duffy announced that a Boondock Saints sequel had officially been given the green light. The video of the announcement was removed from Troy’s website within hours of going live. Troy appeared on WJFK 106.7 and confirmed that “barring an actors strike” the film is scheduled to go into production in August. Duffy revealed the plot of the second film:

“You kind of wonder what has happened to the brothers… They have been living way back in the valleys of Ireland with their father on a family run sheep farm, way beyond the reach of technology or men. Way out there. It’s been sort of a bucolic existence, hard working pioneer-esque type stuff. They have long hair and beards, and stuff like that. You get the sense that they’ve been hibernating to come back. And there is an event that transpires in Boston. A priest murdered in a church and the body is rigged to make it look like the Saints did it. The one guy that the brothers and father have contact with is Il Duce’s brother. So he gets the first notion of this, puts his jeep in gear and tells the brothers what happened. And without even thinking of it the boys are up and out of there … they cut their hair, digg up their rosaries, strap on their guns, and they’re gone! And Dad has to stay back because something is wrong with him, and you can tell he doesn’t have much time left. So when the brothers smuggle themselves back to the US, back to Boston, in a very understandable way. And one of the guys they meet along the way is a Hispanic American named Romeo. And Romeo ends up becoming like the third brother or saint, fourth I guess if you’re gonna consider Billy. He’s a lot more of a bad ass than Rocco was. But his comedy is that he wants to be a lot more a part of this. So there is a lot of humor that comes from that. He’s hopefully going to be played by a friend of mine named Clifton Collins, who was in Capote and Frankie Flowers in Traffic.”

“When they land they basically start killing everything that they think is responsible for that priest’s death. And Romeo has a connection to the Hispanic underground in Boston, which over the last ten years has become pretty exceptional. That is how they are finding their information this time, instead of from Rocco in the first one. So, we’ve got some great set pieces, some big gun play and new types of stunts. But, right off the bat, we have the same three detectives back. And they are confronted … because Williem is not going to be in the second one… He is dead right off the top, and his protege, she is named Unis Bloom, she is a George peach. She’s got that doc holiday accent, super super sexy. So she’s the one going after the saints and now working with these three officers. And she’s FBI. Now immediately, the cops from the first film, they were all in on it. They helped the saints at the end of the day, they crossed over to the dark side. And they don’t know if she knows or not. That’s something we play with throughout the film. There is no love interest by the way. A lot of people hear there is going to be a female lead in Boondock and think there is going to be some kind of love interest… don’t worry about that… That’s not happening. It’s a way to throw a curb-ball at the audience.” … “So for my money, you can’t just give them everything they loved from the first one. You have to give them a new story. She is that new story. She is one hell of a firecracker. She starts going with the cops, and this helps preserve something I loved about Boondocks 1, and fans have remarked about. Billy’s character Il Duce is the third act. He blasts the story wide open. And because we’re keeping him in Ireland, he gets to do the same thing here. He comes back in the third act. The brothers, everything you think is going on, isn’t going on. Here’s the guy that did this. And it ends up being an old guy who has a connection to Billy. And you sort of figure out where this has all been going. And we go into a period flashback and we explain how Il Duce got to be Il Duce.” … “all the way to the point where he makes the first version of that leather vest.”

“Rocco is actually coming back in a dream sequence, so you will see Roc.”

You can listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview on wjfk.com. Geeks of Doom also has the first production dairy from the upcoming production. I’m excited for a sequel, but am still skeptical as to if the production will actually happen or not. I’ll believe it when the first day of principle photography begins.

Discuss: What do you think of the plot of The Boondock Saints 2: All Saint’s Day?

Troy Duffy has a big announcement for St. Patrick’s Day: Boondock Saints 2 might be happening after all. According to Duffy, Sony Picture Studios has greenlit The Boondock Saints: All Saints Day, and the original cast (with the exception of Willem Dafoe) are excited to return. Duffy claims that the film will begin shooting Summer 2008. He made the announcement in a video posted on his YouTube account earlier today (thanks to /Film reader IronMonger for sending this in). The video was quickly removed from the video sharing site, but can be seen below.

After having seen Overnight, a documentary on the making of the original Boondock Saints and the meltdown of Troy Duffy, I’m not quite sure this will actually happen (yes, even after an official announcement). I am however a huge fan of the first film. Many believed the original screenplay was on par with Quentin Tarantino’s early work, the finished film – not as much (again, see Overnight). Despite poor reviews and non-existent box office (Mojo lists a domestic total of $30,471), The Boondock Saints quickly became a cult classic among film fanatics.

Duffy announced in March 2002 that a second film had found financial backing and would have twice the budget of the original film, and “experience a theatrical release.” But legal problems delayed the project again and again.

Discuss: Do you want to see a Boondock Saints sequel? Will it ever actually happen?